Barry Hall tempted again to box!

This runour comes and goes every 6 months or so, but here it is again:

$1m pay day may tempt Swan Hall to pull on gloves

Michael Cowley, Sydney | October 10, 2008


BARRY Hall will be tempted to end his football career and take up boxing when he meets one of the sport's biggest promoters next month.

Hall will meet with high-profile American boxing promoter Gary Shaw in Los Angeles, with Shaw expected to offer the Swans forward about $1 million to sign on for a career in the ring.

Hall has been invited to Los Angeles to be Shaw's guest at Vic Darchinyan's super-flyweight unification bout with Mexican Cristian Mijares on November 1, with the pair then to discuss the prospect of Hall pulling on the gloves.

"Elias Nassar, Vic Darchinyan's manager and Gary Shaw's representative in Australia, has told Gary all about Barry, and Gary invited Barry to be his guest and sit next to him ringside at Vic's fight," said leading Australian match-maker Angelo Hyder. "He wants to have a look at Barry move around a bit and he wants to make Barry an offer he can't refuse, which would possibly be a $1 million sign-on fee.

"Myself and Elias have worked with Gary Shaw for a number of years and we completely believe in Barry, but Gary Shaw is the bloke who talks the money and a $1 million sign-on fee for him is peanuts. At this stage, I think Gary wants him to do something straight away. I don't think he wants him to play another year and that's what they will have to talk about when they come face to face. He will have to work out what he wants to do and what's best for his future."

When contacted last night Hall did not wish to comment, only to say he was contracted to the Swans for next year. Hall, a successful amateur boxer as a junior, has often said he would like to try the sport again after football, and the end of that career continues to creep closer. He had been hoping to get an extension from the Swans on his contract which runs out at the end of 2009, but they refused, saying it would be discussed next season.

Another man in Hall's corner is former light heavyweight world champion Danny Green, who revealed yesterday how he met with Hall six months ago to discuss a move into the ring.

Green wants to be Hall's Australian-based promoter and has invited Hall to Perth in the coming weeks to train. He believes the time to make the move is now for the 31-year-old. "I think Barry should be making the call now. I think now is the right time to make the move," Green said. "Business is business and this is his life, no one else's and at the end of the day he's got to look after himself and I tend to think if he was serious about crossing over into boxing, and having a really good go at it, waiting another year I don't think would be beneficial to him. But let's see what Barry wants to do …"

Hyder said that while Hall had not fought since his youth, he had seen him train, and would "completely recommend" him as having "the best potential of a boxer I have ever seen in this country, bar none."
"Heavyweight big blokes like Barry don't come along everyday, and he's a supreme athlete, he's got the goods."